FAQ #1: About Influences, Workflows and First Steps

 Hi, everyone! Weeks ago we asked you to send us questions for our first FAQ. Thank you all for your active participation over the last weeks and months! Okay, here we go!  Let's start with the first round. 

F: Congratulations on the completion of your first chapter! Since the prologue contained 82 pages I wondered if the next chapters are going to be that long as well?

A: Thank you so much! No, they won’t. Although the page numbers can vary from chapter to chapter they will be much shorter and mostly have less than 20 pages.

F: Do you have your complete story outlined already?

A: I’ve planned the story in broad strokes. Several key scenes are fixed, but how the plot will lead to them is just roughly sketched out. It’s the most exciting part about this project for me and I am curious myself where it goes, though.

F: What were your strongest influences for your manga story?

A: When it comes to narration-related influences, Yoshiro Togashi’s manga Hunter x Hunter is the most noteworthy to mention. His work also heavily influenced my drawing style from the early days until now. There are also several videogames I played which inspired me in many ways. In fact, a lot of my characters are based on some of my favorite games. For instance, Golden Sun and The Legend of Zelda – Majora’s Mask are titles which had a huge impact on the early outline of my story. But let’s save this interesting topic for another time.

Drawing Process & Challenges

F: How long does it usually take to draw a manga page?

A: It depends on the amount of panels and details, but I would say, 3 days in total. I mostly work 3-4 hours per day on a single page. For full colored pages I need a whole week. During study and work days I can only find the time to draw 2 hours in the evening.

F: Can you give insight into your workflow when you are creating a manga page from scratch?

A: When I worked on the first act of the prologue (page 1-41) my working pipeline was devided into 5 general steps: Sketch, outline , toning/Adding greyscale, refining and lettering.

The outline part is always the most time-consuming one, because I have to define the shapes and details for the foreground. I blended step 2, 3 and 4 over time to integrate the background earlier than I used to draw the panels of the old pages. During the greyscale and refining part I often add textures of my photos and use a coarsement effect. Eventually I add shades for certain sections like the clothes or the hair.

Q: What was the biggest challenge and problem regarding your project you had to deal with?

A: It may sound funny, but the first big hurdle was to get started. I worked on the plot details for almost 10 years and tried to get over the first pages. However, since I always have been unsatisfied with my drawings, I used to redraw and rewrite the prologue again and again. It was such a huge step, when I finally got my first manga page online on Tapas back then. With the foundation of the weekly workflow, returning to old bad habits and resetting the story again was not an option anymore.

The other challenge is developing patience. Getting my priorities straight by focusing on my studies while working frequently towards certain scenes which I’m looking forward to presenting can be mentally tough. Especialy when that particular scene is dozens of pages away from your current one. It can be also very motivating though.

If you have any questions regarding Erlmaiden Discordia, be it about the content or the creative process, you can send them anytime to info@thaumana.com or send me a message on twitter (@erlmaiden).

Cheers!